DC Central Kitchen prepares to deliver thousands of free Thanksgiving meals

A D.C. nonprofit has kicked their holiday meal prep into high gear. Volunteers and organizations are hard at work making sure Thanksgiving meals are ready to be handed out to the community.

WASHINGTON - A D.C. nonprofit has kicked their holiday meal prep into high gear.

Volunteers and organizations are hard at work making sure Thanksgiving meals are ready to be handed out to the community.

Thousands of meals will be distributed across D.C. on Thursday thanks to D.C. Central Kitchen.

The nonprofit has been around for more than 30 years and this year’s meal distribution comes at a time when food insecurity is seeing a spike.

According to a Capitol Area Food Bank report, 37 percent of people who responded to their survey did not know where their next meal was coming from at some point over the past year.

They have been preparing for the holidays for weeks now but leaders with the non-profit say their work is really year-round.

This year, they’re serving about 69,000 meals for Thanksgiving. That includes the nearly 30,000 going out Thursday, plus their recent turkey distribution along with meals to schools.

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The non-profit combats hunger and poverty through job training and job creation. The CEO, Mike Curtin, Jr., says organizations that have supported their efforts know food insecurity is a problem.

"We have been in D.C. now for almost 36 years, we are blessed in an incredible amount of support from individuals, from foundations, from corporations around the D.C. area and they recognize the need that exists and have been very generous," Curtin said. "That allows us to support our work specifically to work other smaller grassroots organizations, nonprofits that may not have access to that philanthropy."

On an average day, D.C. Central Kitchen serves about 16,000 meals, Curtin said.

Leaders say this could not be possible without volunteers. Teresa Poirier was volunteering Wednesday with her company.

"It’s fun. It goes by so fast, but we’re doing such a great thing. It’s just nice to have a different environment where I’m hanging out with my coworkers," Poirier said. "It’s nice going into Thanksgiving being like,, not only am I spending it with my family and friends, but I’ve also started off by doing something good for the community."

D.C. Central Kitchen said they’re always looking for extra help and welcome volunteers.